Looking for a handy, inexpensive flashlight you can stuff away until needed? One interesting design is the Blocklite. This consists of a flashlight ‘head’ with six LEDs which snaps onto the connectors of a common 9 volt battery. As there is no ‘body’ so to speak, the light is very small and weighs almost nothing. The Blocklite has a switch on the side which controls its two lighting modes or turns the unit off. There is a High mode which illuminates all six LEDs and a low mode which only illuminates the two middle LEDs. On high the Blocklite puts out approximately 36 lumen, making it useful for many common tasks. Weight wise the unit tips the scales at just 1.8 ounces.

To use you merely snap the Blocklite onto a common 9 volt battery.

A switch allows you to easily toggle from Off to Low or High.

In use you will either love or hate the minimalist design. When I first saw the Blocklite it reminded me of the similar in concept Phoenix IR beacons used in Iraq. Operation is simple and straightforward. To install the battery you merely align the connectors and snap it onto the battery. It attaches securely without issue. The slide switch is recessed and easy to manipulate from Off to High or Low. One nice feature of this light is its rectangular nature. This allows you to set it down without having to worry about it rolling off. When the battery is depleted you just (carefully) unsnap the light head and attach it to a new one.

The Blocklite is very easy to tuck away until needed thanks to its small size and light weight.

For around the home use it provides a useful way to dispose of your old smoke alarm batteries as you rotate them out every year. Thanks to its very small size and ultra-light weight the Blocklite stores easily in a pack or bag. Is it a state of the art retina melting tactical light? No. What it is though is economical and it throws enough light to be useful for the many mundane tasks you typically use a flashlight for. If you’d like more information the Blocklite is available on Amazon for just $7.99: